Hi everybody.
Before we continue our saga, everything seems to be okay here. We're just
24 km from the Gaza strip, but aside from the periodic bang from Israeli
artillery practice, it is quiet. Even the Israelis seem unhappy about the
big raid and have demonstrated in Tel Aviv, but it's pretty much business as
usual.
Who would have ever thought it? Tim and Rose hitting every holy site in
Israel; well almost every one. We rented a car with our friends from The
Southern Cross for three days. These guys amazingly exceed all of my
previous measures of frugality to the extent of trying to turn off the A/C
all the time to improve mileage. However, that being said, he drove and we
saved a bundle on the car by sharing. It was also a slightly better deal
for three days than a shorter period so we kept it just for ourselves the
last day as they had already done the stuff we planned for that day.
On the first day, we couldn't get the car 'til about 9, and what with doing
the paperwork, etc. (our friends insisted I put up my credit card as we
would
have the car the last day--felt like they thought theirs would melt or we
might somehow use it), we didn't get to the Old City of Jerusalem
until about 11. It's only about an hour drive--everything is close in this
tiny country. Navigation was a bit challenging. one of the few annoying
things about Israel, and I must admit I was surprised, is that almost
nothing is in English, including maps, but there was enough, minimal as it
was, to get us around. Every other tourist oriented place we've been has
had dual or treble language. So the rest of this will probably read a bit
like a travelogue because that's what it was.
We entered the Jaffa gate at the old city, finally around 11:30. Yes,
almost
lunchtime; the sites could wait. The main drag from there to the wailing
wall was one stall after another offering souvenirs. Only a few
restaurants. After a quick lunch of gyros, we walked down to the wailing
wall through tons of security. There are more guns in Israel than even the
States, and those gun nuts at home would love it here as everyone seems to
carry an assault weapon with a backup 45 automatic pistol. One restaurant
owner in Nazareth was like the old Saturday Night live routine where Ackroyd
plays a repairman with his pants halfway down showing major butt crack (and
Murray and the chick who married Gene Wilder roar with laughter), except our
guy had a 45 automatic stuck in his crack. I confess I had a hard time not
"cracking"
up. Ok, back to Jerusalem. women and men can't go to the same section of
the wall, so Rose went over to the female side and wrote up her prayer,
note, whatever, and put it in the wall while I people watched. Then we
went looking for the Dome of the Rock, the site of both Solomon's temple and
where Mohamed rose to heaven. The entrance we found to that complex was
only for Arabs so we backtracked through security and went up a special
kafir (that's Arabic for infidel) walkway. The mosque was just closing
down so we only got a quick look--pretty impressive.
After that, we walked over to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (CHS) through
the Christian Quarter, discovering along the way that, even though we had
paid less than half the asking price for some of our souvenirs, the Arab
merchants in the
other section had out-bargained us. Most of the stores in the Christian
Quarter had marked fixed prices so we could compare. The CHS is a combo
deal, allegedly the site of Christ's tomb as well as the site of Calvary.
In any event, there was not too much Christian activity going on in there as
people were elbowing each other to get closer and, all-in-all pretty rude.
Finishing there, we were to meet our friends at 5:30 to go to the Mount of
Olives and, as it was a bit early, we wandered through the Armenian quarter,
where they seem to specialize in ceramics, and the Jewish quarter. I have
no
idea why the Armenians rate their own quarter. Why not the Poles or the
French. Besides, the other quarters all represent a major religion. Maybe
they're Greek Orthodox, but then why isn't it the Greek Orthodox quarter?
So we met up, finally found the car park and took off around the old city
to the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended to heaven. We got lost and
ended up in the Jewish cemetery. Not a total loss as Schindler of
"Schindler's List" fame is buried there, but we ended up at a dead end in a
dodgy neighborhood. Back down and around, we found the proper road up and
got to the scenic overlook for some pretty awesome views of Jerusalem at
sunset. Our driver (not me) decided not to make the turn down the hill on
the way back from which we had ascended and just followed a bunch of other
cars figuring they knew where they were going. Maybe they did, but this
route took us right off the map, and we took 3 hours to get home as we got
totally lost. Of course, the CS's (cheapskates) wouldn't think of stopping
for a bite to eat, so we arrived home famished at 10 pm. Now what would
have
made sense was staying the night in Jerusalem and avoiding all this hassle
as we were headed just north of there to Nazareth the next day, but the
CS's wouldn't hear of that either--something about going through the West
Bank territory--really just too cheap. As an amusing aside, we did another
late one the next night,
and they knew I would not be denied, so we pulled into Mcd's at about 7:30
pm. the husband wanted a cappuccino to help him stay awake on the drive
home but gagged--I kid you not, GAGGED--at the 8 shekel price for the
coffee--about $2. They couldn't believe I spent almost $10 on my burger and
fries. By the way, has the rest of McD's gone to the giant size quarter
pounder or, a la Pulp Fiction, a Royale in Israel. I should add by way of
explanation these people, the CS's,
are very nice, they are just the most unbelievably penurious individuals
I've ever met, and I've met a few. Right, Bob Doyle knows who I mean--Mr.
Window Shade.
The next day was even more chock full of activity, and the drive was about
twice the distance so we got an early start as we already had the car.
Traffic through the outskirts of Tel Aviv was abysmal---every Israeli must
drive through there on the way to work. Fortunately, we did not get majorly
lost that day. We finally made it to Nazareth where we visited Mary's
Well--a couple of them, at least, as nobody is really sure. There were some
other sights, including the 45 in the butt crack there, but one church runs
into another after a while. After lunch, we headed up to the Sea of
Galilee, a hotbed of religious sites. This was the Sermon on the Mount, the
feeding of multitudes with a bit of bread and 2 fish (Rose brought some pita
and a can of anchovies, but nothing happened), calming of the waters,
Peter's house and more I can't remember. Now, I'm not terribly religious
and am doing this mainly for the historical significance, but I do pretty
much believe, having been raised a Catholic. However, my faith was tested
here as the Sea of Galilee is not a sea at all, but, rather a very small--by
Lake Michigan standards--fresh water lake about 2 miles across. In my book,
the biblical tempest Christ calmed couldn't have been too severe as you can
almost walk across the lake!!! So what else did they exaggerate? After the
Sea Of Galilee--our friends had this master plan, you see--off we went to
Mount Tabor, semi on the way home. Tabor is the alleged site of Christ's
transfiguration where the apostles saw Him light up and also talk to God who
called him Son, and Moses. Great views, 16 switchbacks on the way up.
Unfortunately, all the monasteries and churches closed by the time we
arrived. We still got home really late for us old folks, but at least I got
McDonald's!!!!
The next day, Rose and I had the car to ourselves, but, ah, I have forgotten
another CS story. On our late return the prior evening, the CS's suggested
we fill up the car so there would be no question on the cost sharing. I
guess we couldn't be trusted to provide an accurate accounting of the fuel
costs.
Unfortunately, most of the petrol stations close by that time so they
dropped us at the marina and drove around for another hour to fill up just
so we couldn't possibly cheat them the next day. What else could be the
reason for that hassle. Then, in spite of the rental place checking off
that the tank was full, they had determined that it was a bit less when we
picked it up, so I had
to eat that. All this over a possible couple of dollars. I guess their
time isn't worth anything--Rose and I had to stay up waiting for their
return to settle the tab. So, it was with great relief that we had the car
alone.
Since we had a lot to do and relatively long distances to travel, we had
planned to get an early start but ran into some other friends who had
arrived late the day before, but we did get off at about 8:30 for Bethlehem
which is south of Jerusalem. The place to see there is the Church of the
Nativity which is the site of the manger--rrright. We got marginally lost
but someone directed us, and, when we arrived, a Palestinian guy helped us
find
parking, etc. For the prior 2 days, I had sweltered in long pants having
been misinformed by the CS's that some places required them. Nope, the only
remotely similar instance was in Nazareth where one of the caretakers
wouldn't let me cross my long pants clad legs inside that church whilst
waiting for the
others--figure that one out!!! Anyway, that particular day was meant to be
extremely hot so I wore shorts. Of course our helpful Palestinian
shopkeeper said the priests wouldn't let me in the church in shorts, so he
lent me an Arab sarong which, of course, I could return to his shop before
our departure. Turned out I didn't need that either and felt like a fool
walking around this church in a dress. We did manage to get in the back way
and avoid lines as there was some Canadian bigwig (oxymoron, I know) with
the whole nine yards of security guys--black suits, Chevy Suburbans, talking
into their wrists. We sort of snuck by them (not very good security, are
they?) and entered through the exit. Then Rose hooked up with some guy who
took her
into the cave or whatever from the end of the line. I waited in my dress.
I don't think they let transvestites in there.
Our next stop was the Dead Sea, lowest place on earth. To do that, you have
to go through the center of Jerusalem as there are no roads through the
Negev desert. Yep, got lost, but not too bad. Oh yeah, twice, but neither
time too far out of the way. The only way to get there is to drive over to
the north end from Jerusalem and then pick up the Dead Sea coast Road down
to Ein Gedi where you can swim--about halfway down the coast. Got a bite to
eat there and then walked down to the water. Rose went for a swim, and I
was
going to wait for her but it was 43 C in the shade; that's about 105
Fahrenheit!!!! I don't think I've ever been so hot. Went back to the car
and took a nap in the A/C while Rose floated. But wait, there's more.
Leaving the "spa", we headed south to Masada. Masada, you may recall was a
seventies ABC miniseries starring the miniseries king, Peter Strauss.
Around 100 AD (I refuse to use the politically correct BCE and CE), the Jews
revolted against the Romans and held out here for years before pulling a Jim
Jones and committing mass suicide by leaping hundreds of feet to their
deaths. Masada was originally Herod's resort palace and is built at the top
of a 1000 foot plateau. There were actually some crazies who walked up in
the heat but
for the old folks they have a cable car. Round trip was about $2 more than
one way; the CS's walked down when they visited earlier this month. We
paid the extra $2 since it was 105 outside. We were very hot, very tired,
and touristed out, so we made the visit pretty quick and were back at the
boat by dinnertime. Did not get lost!
Having been exhausted from all the sight seeing, we took several days off
and the time to arrange our trip to Petra. If you watched Indiana Jones and
the Last crusade, Petra was the site where the guy was with the Holy Grail.
Looks just like that, except the entry canyon is even more spectacular and
longer than in the movie. Petra is the sight of a desert civilization that
was pre Roman and ran most of the middle east around the time of Alexander.
Was rediscovered by Europeans in the mid nineteenth century and is an entire
huge city carved out of rock in the canyons in the wilderness of Jordan. It
is next to Wadi Musa which is Moses' Well in Arabic. It is a big tourist
destination about 200 km from Aqaba in Jordan which is where the border
crossing from Israel at Eilat is. Both Eilat and Aqaba are at the north end
of, not surprisingly, the Gulf of Aqaba, and both are huge Miami beach
affairs with temps in the 100's. Fortunately, Petra, in the mountains, is
somewhat cooler. It's possible to fly down there but we chose the bus which
are air conditioned modern coaches. What we didn't realize is they are also
a major mode of troop carriers for Israel, and many of the soldiers are not
too proud to elbow their way in ahead of you to take all the seats. And
they've got guns!!!
Anyway, you need to leave early as it is a long way down there from
Ashkelon, so we arranged a cab to the bus station, and, despite the language
barrier, managed to get the right bus to Beer Sheba to change for Eilat.
Beer Sheba (BS) has an interesting story in itself, and I encourage you to
rent the movie "the Light Horsemen" about Australian mounted infantry in WW
I. this city played a key role in the war here, and it's sort of a Charge
of
the Light Brigade with a reasonably happy ending. The ride from BS is
through the Negev desert south. Half the bus was armed forces with weapons,
and the bus actually stopped at about 4 or 5 bases to drop and pick up.
Once at Eilat (we were a bit worried with the Gaza raid having just occurred
that they might close the border but they didn't. Jordan, along with Turkey
were the two Muslim countries with good Israeli relations), you hop a 10
minute cab to the border and walk across. Once again you skip getting
stamped as the Lebanese can figure out you've been in Israel with an Aqaba
stamp. Then, if you are the CSs, you cab it to the bus station and take
that up to Petra. Hotter than hell, we had prearranged a car with the hotel
that picked us up right at the border. Cost about $50 more that the cheap
way.
So, based on Tripadvisor.com and a bit more checking, we had picked the
Valley Star Inn, breakfast included. Mixed reviews here. It's small (10
rooms) and the guys who own it are the children of the late mayor of Petra.
Apparently they believe this gives them the right to take liberties with
their claimed amenities on their web site. ATM on site, Turkish bath, room
service, alcohol and cocktail lounge. No, no, no, no and no. But, the
rooms were nice if a bit over priced, and the owners were super for service,
driving us all over the place on unscheduled trips. Really good sat TV!!!
The real disappointment was, at breakfast the first day, which was pretty
good, some other guests raved about the food the night before. We had
elected to eat out that night and eat in the next day figuring we'd be tired
from walking around Petra all day. Unfortunately, not enough people wanted
dinner so Mama, yes, mama, wasn't cooking and we had to eat out again.
The owner gave us a special ride down to the gates at 8 and we were to meet
him at 5pm for the ride back. It ain't cheap here and entry was about JD35
each. A dinar is $1.40 so it's about $50, but it is amazing and really
worth it. I estimate we walked about 15 km and it could have been more, but
we took donkeys most of the way to the Monastery, an equally impressive
"building" as the Treasury which is featured in the Last crusade. Otherwise
it's a two hour uphill trek with about 1,000 steps. Rose,
wimp that she is, of course, got spooked on the donkey and kept asking to
get
off. In truth, as I rode hers part of the way back down, it had a bad
saddle, and you felt like you were going to fall off. You need to walk the
last 1/2 mile to the Monastery, and it was awesome. We stopped for a rest
and drink for an hour or so, chatting with some interesting tourists, one of
whom was an old guy who had just come from Manchu Pichu. There was also a
very hot Air Emirates stewardess??!! On the way back to the donkeys, Rose
informed
me she was not getting back on and would walk. Right, this is about 2 or 3
miles most of which is steep stairs. But she was firm, so I informed the
donkey boys that we would give them half the round trip price as their
saddle sucked. They offered to meet us at the bottom of the steps so I
tried to get a discount, but Rose was still having none of it. So--it
ended up with me offering JD15, they snorted and said forget it; they would
get the tourist police. We said ok. So it finally ended up that we did
pick them back up at the bottom for JD25 total, and Rose took my donkey and
I
ultimately took the head donkey boy's donkey as the saddle really was crap
on Rose's ex donkey. It was all pretty funny but I guess you had to be
there.
By this time, it was about 2:30 and we still hadn't had lunch, and all the
food places were back where we'd come from so, being old farts and tired
and hot, we hired a horse drawn cart to take us back the 3 miles to the
gate. This guy was pretty funny as well. He, he claimed, was the last guy
of the day, JD50 was
a discount, yada, yada, yada. We went back and forth until about 4 other
"last carts of the day" pulled in and settled on JD25 for the ride.
Hungry, hot and thirsty (Rose was sure they would have drinking water fill
taps all over as they did at Masada, so we only brought one bottle of
water),
we decided to get a snack at the Movenpick hotel ($850/night; yep, $850)
which is just outside the gate. After a false start at the restaurant which
had a huge, but expensive, buffet, we were referred to the Atrium (can you
see my nose in
the air as I say Atrium with an English accent?) for drinks and snacks.
Expensive, but we were tired and hungry and treated ourselves to some good
grub and drinks. So now it's 4 and our ride isn't due 'til 5. This is a no
brainer--for less than the cost of one vodka tonic, we took a cab back to
the hotel. Shower, nap and it's dinner time. The place the guy took us
to was a bit pricey and touristy but pretty good. Oh, we had planned on
the bus back to Aqaba, but negotiated a JD35 deal to the border with our
afternoon cabbie, so next morning, bright and early, it was breakfast and
into the cab at 7. We were hoping to get an earlier bus than the 11 AM out
of Eilat.
Made it in record time to the border. Jordan side no problem, but got the
usual grilling on the Israeli side, and then Rose was so flustered she
forgot
to tell them not to stamp her in so we'll need to deal with that getting
into Lebanon. We think, as long as we're coming from Cyprus, it won't be a
problem. There wasn't an earlier bus so we sat around for an hour but at
least it was assigned seats. Not so lucky on the bus from BS to Ashkelon.
That one's luggage compartment wouldn't open so I stood for most of the
trip. Rose had boarded earlier (yeah, I had to deal with the luggage) and
saved me a seat in the back. However the aisle was jammed, and she couldn't
see that I had boarded with the bags, and there was no way I was going to
get back there. It was pretty amusing; the first 15 minutes of the trip
Rose,
and her new found Israeli army studs were all calling to me to come back to
the seat they'd saved.
Happily back "home", we chilled out for the weekend waiting for Sunday and
the workmen. Sunday, the electricians showed up on time and crawled all
over the instruments, ultimately taking both radar displays and the tridata
with them to check out. No sign of the mechanic, but the boatyard guy came
with the electricians, and there is some drama about who will clean out the
oil in the bilge prior to the mechanic working on the leak. Yesterday, I
finally gave up and actually cleaned it up myself. Need to catch the
mechanic today (Tuesday) to get him out here. Yesterday, the electricians
called with basically all bad news. the replacement radar I put in, an
RL70Plus, cannot talk to the old RL70 repeater at the nav station. In any
event, the RL70 had a blown connection and nothing at all can talk to it,
anyway. The tridata is also causing communication problems between the
instruments and neither can it be repaired here. The guys here have a
source for a replacement 70Plus, but it's way too much money, and, besides,
in Turkey, I'm putting in a plain RL80 which couldn't talk to the plus.
So--the answer is to do nothing now-everything works independently-and buy a
used RL80 or 70 display to go with the already purchased RL80. The tridata
can be repaired by Ray Marine, I assume, and I can send it off this fall--a
new one of those is about $700. Generally bad news, but the good news is
now I know what the problems are and can address them at my leisure and at a
reasonable cost.
The plan is to get the instruments back installed which happens Thursday,
get the mechanic out here--I'll see him this AM--and take off for a short
trip to Cyprus since it's difficult to go to Beirut directly from Israel.
Don't know how long we'll stay in Cyprus, part of which depends on the
marina situation--they're very crowded so if we can't get a spot we'll
shorten our stay. The idea is to spend some time in Beirut and Lebanon and
then head up to the east end of Turkey and cruise west towards Marmaris, our
home for the winter.
Cheers 'til next time.
Tim & Rose
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Out, Out, Damned Red Sea May 24 2010
Hello everybody.
Some of you may be receiving multiple copies of this, and some of you are, no doubt, new recipients. I neglected to mention in my last cliffhanger, that my computer blew up in Hurghada. As a result, I got a new one with Windows 7 which does not come with a mail program. After interminable fiddling, I got something working, but it was a real travail to upload stuff from Yahoo including my address book, contacts, whatever, that had the distribution list for my witty repartee. I really didn't keep the Yahoo contacts well up to date and the old list was lost, forever. So---if I need to eliminate or change your address, please let me know.
So, for you newcomers, we last left you on our way to the Suez canal. We arrived fairly early at Port Suez Yacht Club, the staging area for yachts transiting the canal, and got some help tying up to the bow and stern moorings they use. We had contacted our agent, Felix, by phone, on the way in, and everything, unlike in Panama, proceeded at warp speed with the measurer coming out with the agent almost immediately. The agent handles paperwork, while the measurer uses some arcane system to come up with the tonnage of your boat which is the basis on which they charge you. The tonnage is not the weight but rather a measure of the tonnage cargo capacity of the vessel. This system was devised 150 years ago when yachts didn't do the canal. They can really screw you (and this was Egypt), so one of our cruising guides had a method of estimating the number. Complicated, obscure and difficult, I came up with something like $700. Suez is a lot cheaper than Panama, maybe because there are no locks. Anyway, I'm not sure if they came back that afternoon or the next morning, but the number was under $400--a major win in my view. That evening we went out to a local hotel that actually had alcohol in their bar, with a few of the others waiting to transit. Drinks expensive, beer barely affordable, but we celebrated our departure from the Red Sea.
Scheduled to leave the next morning for Ismailia, a mandatory stop for yachts about halfway through the canal, things pretty much went off without a hitch. Three or four of us were going, and the pilots showed up pretty much on time--around 9 AM after the northbound freighter convoy. The canal runs sort of one way, northbound in the morning, south in the afternoon. The canal itself is about 100 miles so we hit Ismailia mid afternoon. The fun starts when the pilot goes to leave the boat. You are expected to tip them--pay baksheesh. In fact, Ismailia had to be the capitol of Baksheesh, as even the guards at the gate wanted tipping. Anyway, we had a very pleasant and respectful pilot so I gave him 100 Egyptian pounds (LE), about $18. The going rate is LE50, but I had used all my smaller bills that morning, and the guy was good, helping moor the boat, handling lines, etc. However, it seems no matter how much you tip, they always want more. Our guy was pretty harmless asking for bus fare back to Port Suez, but one boat was asked to give their $500 binoculars (they didn't). I did not have any more pounds, and the guy finally accepted it. You tie up there with the bow tied to one of their buoys and the stern tied to the wharf which is well fendered. $21/night, but water and power are free. Ismailia is a fairly large town with a strong colonial flavor. Even in ancient times, there were canals from the Nile to there as it is on a large lake. We planned on an extended stop to travel.
On a bummer note, one of our friend's boat was still there, and they had left Hurghada almost a month before us, so I was immediately concerned. Turned out the guy had what was thought to be a mild heart attack, but on review in Austria is more serious. In any event, they had arranged for some guys we know to take the boat up to Ashkelon where we are now, but the idiot Egyptians, for some reason--looking for major baksheesh or whatever--forced the guy to finish the canal transit himself. The latest word is the heart attack was more severe than they thought but the extra hassle including an obnoxious pilot did not help the situation.
Anyway, as you veterans know, there is always a "go to" guy in these ports, and Mohamed, the cab driver, was the guy here. Since this is a port in transit, it is closed off for customs purposes, and they have immigration as well--hence the baksheesh every time you came and went. While the boat was cleared out in Port Suez, we needed to keep our immigration status open to see the pyramids. We had no intention of personally checking out in Port Said and paying more fees as Israel doesn't care. Turned out we were actually staying beyond our sell by date, but immigration, surprisingly, was cool about it. In spite of paying for 90 day visas, we had only been stamped in for 30 days and were exceeding that. But--apparently there is a 14 day grace period. Who knows?? Unbelievable bureaucracy there, but the guy didn't ask for money!!!!!!!!!!!! Back to Mohamed. He can get you cheap diesel at the local price, drive you around and act as a tour guide for the pyramids. We hired him to take us to Cairo and the next day to do the pyramids with us and drive us back. He seems unique among Egyptians, pricing his services reasonably and not having his hand out all the time. As a result he got an extra big tip from me. The other idiots should take lessons. However, he did try to convert Rose to Islam while I was napping on the way back.
As for my ongoing saga with the boat parts, FedEx was undistinguished once again. We finally got them released from Cairo customs who, you will recall, I believe was looking for baksheesh. Unbelievably, after all the delays, the duty was still LE1260--about $250 on a $600 shipment. I has specifically asked if there would be problems about delivering to Ismailia, as Felix had indicated there might be, but was assured no problem. Okay, eat shit and die--I needed the damn parts. I'll pay and have it done with. So they deliver the parts down to the guard station at the waterfront, and the guards won't let me take it in. Something about another clearance from customs. I threw a Donald duck temper tantrum--in retrospect probably not the wisest thing to do with a guy with an AK47--refusing to even consider more baksheesh. Back and forth in Arabic between FedEx guys and the guards. Yada, yada, yada. After about an hour of this, I told FedEx to get it released or give me my money back and send the packages back. Finally, the head cop trying to get by to go home, called someone and some lowly customs guy came down to look at the package for 2 minutes, and they allowed me to take it in. Then, the customs guy had the nerve to follow me to the boat and ask me to sign some other stuff. If there was any alternative, I would never use FedEx again. Of course, they summarily dismissed my request for a refund!!! A-holes!!!!!!!!!
The good news is that now that I've installed the new VHF antenna, which went off without a hitch, I am getting my usual 30-40 mile range, and, from Egypt, there is some weird radio propagation and range increased on the AIS to 200 miles--I'd been lucky to get six. Fun watching the icons for 100's of ships approaching the canal. Yes, I am easily amused these days. Also easily replaced a few other parts that were chafing ropes, etc.
Having done my work, it was time for playing and going to Cairo for the museum and the pyramids. We checked Lonely Planet which was fairly unenthusiastic about the 3 star hotels except for one, The Victoria. 5 star amenities at 3 star prices (about $40/night). A little bit out of the way but excellent value; Tripadvisor confirmed this assessment. Nope. True it was only a short cab ride away from the museum, but the neighborhood was all commercial--all hardware and mechanical for that matter. I could have bought any type of tool and gear up to 100 kilowatt generators, but there was nothing but this for blocks--we're not sure how many, but at least four--around. No restaurants, no bars. That was okay as the hotel has a decent menu. Nope. They messed up Rose's dinner and just shrugged when she complained. The room was okay but small, but none of that would have garnered a complaint except the price had gone up from the expected $40 to $70 and there was no hot water in the morning. Then the guy refused a break on the price and accused me of lying about the water. Took a trip back to the room to prove him wrong. Another tantrum generated no results. I think Egyptians are so used to screwing people they are immune to being yelled at.
Now for the good stuff. The Egyptian museum was awesome. I'd seen the King Tut stuff in Chicago when it toured years ago, but this was the entire stash--almost an entire floor. The info we garnered on the cruise was very helpful as we walked through the various stages of Egyptian civilization from about 3000 BC on.
The next day, bright and early, after a crappy hotel breakfast, Mohamed picked us up. Now we've all seen the movies with the pyramids out in the middle of nowhere, and, I think in the Spy Who Loved Me, they even commented on being stranded out there. Nope. On the west side, it's true there is desert for miles, but they abut the west side of Cairo like a suburb. A 15 minute ride from our hotel. They are magnificent, and I am more than ever convinced that aliens had to build them. There is some recent evidence that the Sphinx is 10,000 years old which would also change the dating of the pyramids to a time when there was a more tropical climate on the Nile, and no known civilization to build them. Whatever. Very, very cool as was the sphinx. We even took a camel ride around--one of the pics is attached as we have pretty good internet right now--and have some awesome pictures. This is suitable for enlargement and framing, but there will be a license fee.
So we were back at the harbor by about 3 and decided to hang out one more day before leaving. We still needed to do some shopping, and the captain needed a haircut. All we needed to do was notify Felix that we wanted to go. The only fly in the ointment is if a warship is going through, they delay any private yachts. Sure enough, we had a French warship come through, and our departure was delayed until about 11:30. Actually that worked out okay as we were planning on departing the canal and sailing straight to Ashkelon Israel about 120 miles away, so that timing got us into Israel at the right time. We had a jerk off demanding pilot, but I just got rid of my remaining pounds--about 90--figuring it would keep him off my back. No luck. I could tell he wasn't happy with the baksheesh, and then he asked me for cigarettes. Still having 4 cartons of Bingos left from Malaysia, I tossed, not threw, him a pack but he took offence and threw them back. Probably wanted Marlboros. It would have helped if Rose hadn't loudly asked me if I was going to give him cigarettes; the guy was probably expecting a carton. I need to keep Rose away from these guys!! I was able to end the crap by demanding my money back in response to which he beat a hasty exit!!! You can not believe the feeling of relief and exhilaration Rose and I experienced on departing Egypt and finally making it into the Med.
In typical fashion, we had little or wrong direction wind for the trip to Israel. you need to steer a somewhat indirect course to stay well off the Gaza Strip and you need to check in with the Israeli navy about 40 miles out. Well, the navy was having some comms problems and conducting some training as well. In addition, I guess they check your info several times to root out undesirables, but it was ridiculous. Really no harm, but they must have checked us 10 times with the same name, rank, serial number stuff, and then, a few miles out, a gunboat buzzed us at about 30 knots and actually made such a large wake some stuff rocked off the shelves and broke. Then they called for the same old info. However, this was the real deal, and the boat bristled with armament so, once again, we grinned and bore it!! Arrival at Ashkelon resulted in several more searches and paperwork, but, all-in-all not too bad with everyone very friendly and us happy to be back in the first world--although it will take some getting used to first world prices!!!
So, we've been hanging out here for a week just chilling and exploring. Right now I'm waiting for the mechanic to check out my oil leak and tomorrow we'll start touring around with a trip to Jerusalem, on which we'll report next time. That's if we're still alive. Apparently, last year some rockets got lobbed over this way from Gaza, and we've heard what sounds like some bombing going on this PM. Offsetting that was the hot topless chick in the little power boat behind us. I say what's a few rockets? I think we'll stay--no sense letting those terrorists scare us off!
Cheers for now
Tim & Rose
Some of you may be receiving multiple copies of this, and some of you are, no doubt, new recipients. I neglected to mention in my last cliffhanger, that my computer blew up in Hurghada. As a result, I got a new one with Windows 7 which does not come with a mail program. After interminable fiddling, I got something working, but it was a real travail to upload stuff from Yahoo including my address book, contacts, whatever, that had the distribution list for my witty repartee. I really didn't keep the Yahoo contacts well up to date and the old list was lost, forever. So---if I need to eliminate or change your address, please let me know.
So, for you newcomers, we last left you on our way to the Suez canal. We arrived fairly early at Port Suez Yacht Club, the staging area for yachts transiting the canal, and got some help tying up to the bow and stern moorings they use. We had contacted our agent, Felix, by phone, on the way in, and everything, unlike in Panama, proceeded at warp speed with the measurer coming out with the agent almost immediately. The agent handles paperwork, while the measurer uses some arcane system to come up with the tonnage of your boat which is the basis on which they charge you. The tonnage is not the weight but rather a measure of the tonnage cargo capacity of the vessel. This system was devised 150 years ago when yachts didn't do the canal. They can really screw you (and this was Egypt), so one of our cruising guides had a method of estimating the number. Complicated, obscure and difficult, I came up with something like $700. Suez is a lot cheaper than Panama, maybe because there are no locks. Anyway, I'm not sure if they came back that afternoon or the next morning, but the number was under $400--a major win in my view. That evening we went out to a local hotel that actually had alcohol in their bar, with a few of the others waiting to transit. Drinks expensive, beer barely affordable, but we celebrated our departure from the Red Sea.
Scheduled to leave the next morning for Ismailia, a mandatory stop for yachts about halfway through the canal, things pretty much went off without a hitch. Three or four of us were going, and the pilots showed up pretty much on time--around 9 AM after the northbound freighter convoy. The canal runs sort of one way, northbound in the morning, south in the afternoon. The canal itself is about 100 miles so we hit Ismailia mid afternoon. The fun starts when the pilot goes to leave the boat. You are expected to tip them--pay baksheesh. In fact, Ismailia had to be the capitol of Baksheesh, as even the guards at the gate wanted tipping. Anyway, we had a very pleasant and respectful pilot so I gave him 100 Egyptian pounds (LE), about $18. The going rate is LE50, but I had used all my smaller bills that morning, and the guy was good, helping moor the boat, handling lines, etc. However, it seems no matter how much you tip, they always want more. Our guy was pretty harmless asking for bus fare back to Port Suez, but one boat was asked to give their $500 binoculars (they didn't). I did not have any more pounds, and the guy finally accepted it. You tie up there with the bow tied to one of their buoys and the stern tied to the wharf which is well fendered. $21/night, but water and power are free. Ismailia is a fairly large town with a strong colonial flavor. Even in ancient times, there were canals from the Nile to there as it is on a large lake. We planned on an extended stop to travel.
On a bummer note, one of our friend's boat was still there, and they had left Hurghada almost a month before us, so I was immediately concerned. Turned out the guy had what was thought to be a mild heart attack, but on review in Austria is more serious. In any event, they had arranged for some guys we know to take the boat up to Ashkelon where we are now, but the idiot Egyptians, for some reason--looking for major baksheesh or whatever--forced the guy to finish the canal transit himself. The latest word is the heart attack was more severe than they thought but the extra hassle including an obnoxious pilot did not help the situation.
Anyway, as you veterans know, there is always a "go to" guy in these ports, and Mohamed, the cab driver, was the guy here. Since this is a port in transit, it is closed off for customs purposes, and they have immigration as well--hence the baksheesh every time you came and went. While the boat was cleared out in Port Suez, we needed to keep our immigration status open to see the pyramids. We had no intention of personally checking out in Port Said and paying more fees as Israel doesn't care. Turned out we were actually staying beyond our sell by date, but immigration, surprisingly, was cool about it. In spite of paying for 90 day visas, we had only been stamped in for 30 days and were exceeding that. But--apparently there is a 14 day grace period. Who knows?? Unbelievable bureaucracy there, but the guy didn't ask for money!!!!!!!!!!!! Back to Mohamed. He can get you cheap diesel at the local price, drive you around and act as a tour guide for the pyramids. We hired him to take us to Cairo and the next day to do the pyramids with us and drive us back. He seems unique among Egyptians, pricing his services reasonably and not having his hand out all the time. As a result he got an extra big tip from me. The other idiots should take lessons. However, he did try to convert Rose to Islam while I was napping on the way back.
As for my ongoing saga with the boat parts, FedEx was undistinguished once again. We finally got them released from Cairo customs who, you will recall, I believe was looking for baksheesh. Unbelievably, after all the delays, the duty was still LE1260--about $250 on a $600 shipment. I has specifically asked if there would be problems about delivering to Ismailia, as Felix had indicated there might be, but was assured no problem. Okay, eat shit and die--I needed the damn parts. I'll pay and have it done with. So they deliver the parts down to the guard station at the waterfront, and the guards won't let me take it in. Something about another clearance from customs. I threw a Donald duck temper tantrum--in retrospect probably not the wisest thing to do with a guy with an AK47--refusing to even consider more baksheesh. Back and forth in Arabic between FedEx guys and the guards. Yada, yada, yada. After about an hour of this, I told FedEx to get it released or give me my money back and send the packages back. Finally, the head cop trying to get by to go home, called someone and some lowly customs guy came down to look at the package for 2 minutes, and they allowed me to take it in. Then, the customs guy had the nerve to follow me to the boat and ask me to sign some other stuff. If there was any alternative, I would never use FedEx again. Of course, they summarily dismissed my request for a refund!!! A-holes!!!!!!!!!
The good news is that now that I've installed the new VHF antenna, which went off without a hitch, I am getting my usual 30-40 mile range, and, from Egypt, there is some weird radio propagation and range increased on the AIS to 200 miles--I'd been lucky to get six. Fun watching the icons for 100's of ships approaching the canal. Yes, I am easily amused these days. Also easily replaced a few other parts that were chafing ropes, etc.
Having done my work, it was time for playing and going to Cairo for the museum and the pyramids. We checked Lonely Planet which was fairly unenthusiastic about the 3 star hotels except for one, The Victoria. 5 star amenities at 3 star prices (about $40/night). A little bit out of the way but excellent value; Tripadvisor confirmed this assessment. Nope. True it was only a short cab ride away from the museum, but the neighborhood was all commercial--all hardware and mechanical for that matter. I could have bought any type of tool and gear up to 100 kilowatt generators, but there was nothing but this for blocks--we're not sure how many, but at least four--around. No restaurants, no bars. That was okay as the hotel has a decent menu. Nope. They messed up Rose's dinner and just shrugged when she complained. The room was okay but small, but none of that would have garnered a complaint except the price had gone up from the expected $40 to $70 and there was no hot water in the morning. Then the guy refused a break on the price and accused me of lying about the water. Took a trip back to the room to prove him wrong. Another tantrum generated no results. I think Egyptians are so used to screwing people they are immune to being yelled at.
Now for the good stuff. The Egyptian museum was awesome. I'd seen the King Tut stuff in Chicago when it toured years ago, but this was the entire stash--almost an entire floor. The info we garnered on the cruise was very helpful as we walked through the various stages of Egyptian civilization from about 3000 BC on.
The next day, bright and early, after a crappy hotel breakfast, Mohamed picked us up. Now we've all seen the movies with the pyramids out in the middle of nowhere, and, I think in the Spy Who Loved Me, they even commented on being stranded out there. Nope. On the west side, it's true there is desert for miles, but they abut the west side of Cairo like a suburb. A 15 minute ride from our hotel. They are magnificent, and I am more than ever convinced that aliens had to build them. There is some recent evidence that the Sphinx is 10,000 years old which would also change the dating of the pyramids to a time when there was a more tropical climate on the Nile, and no known civilization to build them. Whatever. Very, very cool as was the sphinx. We even took a camel ride around--one of the pics is attached as we have pretty good internet right now--and have some awesome pictures. This is suitable for enlargement and framing, but there will be a license fee.
So we were back at the harbor by about 3 and decided to hang out one more day before leaving. We still needed to do some shopping, and the captain needed a haircut. All we needed to do was notify Felix that we wanted to go. The only fly in the ointment is if a warship is going through, they delay any private yachts. Sure enough, we had a French warship come through, and our departure was delayed until about 11:30. Actually that worked out okay as we were planning on departing the canal and sailing straight to Ashkelon Israel about 120 miles away, so that timing got us into Israel at the right time. We had a jerk off demanding pilot, but I just got rid of my remaining pounds--about 90--figuring it would keep him off my back. No luck. I could tell he wasn't happy with the baksheesh, and then he asked me for cigarettes. Still having 4 cartons of Bingos left from Malaysia, I tossed, not threw, him a pack but he took offence and threw them back. Probably wanted Marlboros. It would have helped if Rose hadn't loudly asked me if I was going to give him cigarettes; the guy was probably expecting a carton. I need to keep Rose away from these guys!! I was able to end the crap by demanding my money back in response to which he beat a hasty exit!!! You can not believe the feeling of relief and exhilaration Rose and I experienced on departing Egypt and finally making it into the Med.
In typical fashion, we had little or wrong direction wind for the trip to Israel. you need to steer a somewhat indirect course to stay well off the Gaza Strip and you need to check in with the Israeli navy about 40 miles out. Well, the navy was having some comms problems and conducting some training as well. In addition, I guess they check your info several times to root out undesirables, but it was ridiculous. Really no harm, but they must have checked us 10 times with the same name, rank, serial number stuff, and then, a few miles out, a gunboat buzzed us at about 30 knots and actually made such a large wake some stuff rocked off the shelves and broke. Then they called for the same old info. However, this was the real deal, and the boat bristled with armament so, once again, we grinned and bore it!! Arrival at Ashkelon resulted in several more searches and paperwork, but, all-in-all not too bad with everyone very friendly and us happy to be back in the first world--although it will take some getting used to first world prices!!!
So, we've been hanging out here for a week just chilling and exploring. Right now I'm waiting for the mechanic to check out my oil leak and tomorrow we'll start touring around with a trip to Jerusalem, on which we'll report next time. That's if we're still alive. Apparently, last year some rockets got lobbed over this way from Gaza, and we've heard what sounds like some bombing going on this PM. Offsetting that was the hot topless chick in the little power boat behind us. I say what's a few rockets? I think we'll stay--no sense letting those terrorists scare us off!
Cheers for now
Tim & Rose
Back to Civilization May 15 2010
Hi all.
Writing this as we start our transit of the Suez Canal. The Red Sea, the worst 1,000 miles we've seen is finally behind us. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We left you in the aptly named Foul Bay, just south of Egypt hoping for a favorable wind shift. Nah, of course not. Our weather window gone, limping along with one engine and a torn jib into 25 knot headwinds, we were making about 1-1.5 knots which turned our 3 day trip into 4 1/2 and required the ever popular night entry into a new strange port--there was no way we were going to spend another night out after being beaten up so long. Fortunately, we had a previously used "track" on the chart plotter and the port control guys were helpful giving us additional directions, so we tied up at the customs dock in Port Ghalib (PG) at about 8:30 PM. The guys work 24 hours so someone came down and took some of our paperwork, and we left it that we would spend the night on their dock and finish in the morning. What a relief. As an indicator of how rotten the passage up was, when we arrived we looked, and there was Charlie on the dock. This is the same Charlie who has never, ever been off the boat, even with other cats around on the dock in other marinas!!!!
The next morning we finished check-in with the usual payments, and the marina helped us over to a Med-moor spot. PG is relatively new so it was a bit of a travail to get water hooked up, but by mid day we had power, water and the all important wifi, although the latter was better used at one of the free sites at the restaurants. We also got SIM cards, and arranged for a mechanic to look at the continuing oil leak. The marina is mainly a dive resort and the entire area is still under construction as well as a "town", but it really is simply an oasis out in the desert with nothing else around. In the marina complex were several hotels and condos as well as a Pizza Hut and TGIF and a few other restaurants. Beer, outside of happy hour 2 fers, was ridiculous and spirits prohibitively expensive, but at least you could get a drink in a Muslim country.
Older and much wiser, we wanted to wait for a good weather window for the 110 mile trip to Hurghada, but the engine problem forced us to miss the one over that weekend. We did have a few days, however, to catch up with some old friends who had been ahead of us, and a new crowd came in from the south on the same window that the others left on. It took about another week for the weather to be okay and we enjoyed just lolling around. The guy supposedly fixed the engine and I ran it for 4 hours with no apparent loss of oil. Yahoo!!! Egypt has the same fuel deal as all the other Arab countries--one price for locals and one for outsiders. But, we heard the price in Hurghada was even higher, so we bit the bullet, fueled up at US$.88/liter and left PG 10 days after arrival at about 9 AM. While the weather wasn't awful, neither was it suitable for an easy sail up to Hurghada, so we happily pulled into the very well protected harbor at 9 the next morning. Once again there were several people we know, but they come and go based on their own schedules--some pressured by having to meet people in the Med somewhere--and we enjoyed catching up with a whole new crowd from past travels.
Hurghada is at the foot of the Gulf of Suez about 180 miles from the canal. It is the Egyptian Riviera, and hotels stretch for miles along the coast both north and south. Once again, the desert pretty much comes right up to the water. The marina is right in the center of it all with the usual tourist traps/souvenir shops, etc. I have to admit, however, there are some good deals. I bought a really nice soft sheepskin backpack for about $35 and the replica watches seem to be better and cheaper that the others we've seen. This was another Med-moor but the height and configuration of the dock as well as the future moorings in the Med convinced us a paserelle was in order--that's gangplank for you landlubbers. A real paserelle would be about $2,000, so I bought an aluminum ladder and rigged up a proper footing for it for about $75. Not beautiful, but it works pretty well. How stupid not to have thought of it in Thailand and had a nice one made for cents on the dollar.
We had planned to visit Cairo, the pyramids and Luxor from here but were convinced by others to wait for Cairo 'til we got to Ismailia which is much closer. We did book an awesome 4 day 3 night Nile River cruise starting in Luxor and ending in Aswan. Unlike our Mekong River cruise at triple the cost, this one exceeded our expectations in every respect except the cost of drinks on the ship which was ridiculous. In Luxor, highlights were the Temple of Kharnak and the Valley of the Kings where Tut's and about 61 other pharaohs' tombs are--blazing hot but worth the experience. Stopped at several other temples on the way to Aswan and saw the totally unimpressive Aswan High dam the Russians built. Some other guys went farther south to Abu Simbel where, I'm sure you will recall, they dismantled and reassembled some famous temples, etc. that the lake created by the dam would have flooded and covered. The cabins were very large, really like hotel rooms, and the food was quite good, although all buffet. With our Hurghada purchased wifi card we could even do email and a bit of weather surfing. I now have about ten of these things because every country we visit claims their wifi stick will work everywhere else. "Just put in a new SIM card", they say. Right. It's just like a locked cell phone. Fortunately, these days, in most place it's very cheap for a new one and SIM cards are a dime a dozen. We were surprised at how narrow the Nile, one of the world's great rivers, really was. Overall, we give the cruise a 10 although the 8 hour drive back to Hurghada was tiresome. We left Charlie with a nice Swiss/Italian woman who boards animals out in the desert. It was a nice spot but he's been very affectionate since then. He had his own private apartment, fairly spacious, but we guess he didn't like speaking Arabic or something. Our tour of Cairo, etc. will be fairly short term so we're thinking of leaving him on board for that.
You all know the Egyptians love their coffee, so when our percolators crapped out one would think it would be no problem getting a stovetop percolator or French press--appliances here are 220 and the boat is 110 volt. We spent considerable effort looking but no dice. Hoping to find something in Cairo, but have ordered an electric one from home as well for later delivery. Speaking of deliveries, FedEx has done it again. Prior to arrival in Hurghada, I asked the marina about duty free importation. Most countries allow that if you are a "yacht in transit", which we are. The manager told me as long as the package was marked that way it shouldn't be a problem, so I ordered some essentials like the new VHF antenna and a new halyard as well as some other stuff--about $650 in all. So first of all, in comes my mail from Lizzie--no hold up there, but FedEx just accepted customs $100 duty assessment even though it was only mail and a few boxes of candy worth maybe $50 at the outside. In the meantime, the marina then told me that to get the stuff duty free I would need an agent to the tune of $150-200 so I opted to let the West Marine stuff come in as regular stuff. After all, it's total value was less than the imputed value of Lizzie's. So the boat stuff first got held up for 10 days in London due to the volcano but finally arrived Cairo on the 22nd. To make this story tolerably short, suffice it to say that FedEx basically did nothing to clear it and I still don't have it and they won't give me a refund. I'll get it in Ismailia, I guess, but half the problem is FedEx just sat on it and didn't call me, and the other half, I surmise, is customs is used to getting packages cleared by an agent who is willing to pay baksheesh, and I didn't have one so they kept coming up with excuses to delay clearance. Fortunately, from here on out I will have an in at FedEx as Lizzie has just gotten a job there with a big raise and 75% discount. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! And speaking of kids, Joey is temporarily gainfully employed delivering a yacht to Hong Kong. Up in the air after that.
Not wanting to delay departure to Suez any longer and with a favorable weather pattern, we left Hurghada sans FedEx, on Friday. Stopped about 25 miles out for the night at one of the nicest anchorages we've had in the Red Sea and sailed through the following night to arrive Suez yesterday, Sunday. We had already arranged an agent who got us measured (need that to figure the fees) and cleared so here we are Monday midday about halfway through. We'll be stopping shortly and do our remaining touring before finishing the canal and heading over to Israel. And, oh yes, the oil leak is still there. It'll have to wait for Israel. Think I'll give a third country's mechanics a shot at fixing it!!!
Writing this as we start our transit of the Suez Canal. The Red Sea, the worst 1,000 miles we've seen is finally behind us. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We left you in the aptly named Foul Bay, just south of Egypt hoping for a favorable wind shift. Nah, of course not. Our weather window gone, limping along with one engine and a torn jib into 25 knot headwinds, we were making about 1-1.5 knots which turned our 3 day trip into 4 1/2 and required the ever popular night entry into a new strange port--there was no way we were going to spend another night out after being beaten up so long. Fortunately, we had a previously used "track" on the chart plotter and the port control guys were helpful giving us additional directions, so we tied up at the customs dock in Port Ghalib (PG) at about 8:30 PM. The guys work 24 hours so someone came down and took some of our paperwork, and we left it that we would spend the night on their dock and finish in the morning. What a relief. As an indicator of how rotten the passage up was, when we arrived we looked, and there was Charlie on the dock. This is the same Charlie who has never, ever been off the boat, even with other cats around on the dock in other marinas!!!!
The next morning we finished check-in with the usual payments, and the marina helped us over to a Med-moor spot. PG is relatively new so it was a bit of a travail to get water hooked up, but by mid day we had power, water and the all important wifi, although the latter was better used at one of the free sites at the restaurants. We also got SIM cards, and arranged for a mechanic to look at the continuing oil leak. The marina is mainly a dive resort and the entire area is still under construction as well as a "town", but it really is simply an oasis out in the desert with nothing else around. In the marina complex were several hotels and condos as well as a Pizza Hut and TGIF and a few other restaurants. Beer, outside of happy hour 2 fers, was ridiculous and spirits prohibitively expensive, but at least you could get a drink in a Muslim country.
Older and much wiser, we wanted to wait for a good weather window for the 110 mile trip to Hurghada, but the engine problem forced us to miss the one over that weekend. We did have a few days, however, to catch up with some old friends who had been ahead of us, and a new crowd came in from the south on the same window that the others left on. It took about another week for the weather to be okay and we enjoyed just lolling around. The guy supposedly fixed the engine and I ran it for 4 hours with no apparent loss of oil. Yahoo!!! Egypt has the same fuel deal as all the other Arab countries--one price for locals and one for outsiders. But, we heard the price in Hurghada was even higher, so we bit the bullet, fueled up at US$.88/liter and left PG 10 days after arrival at about 9 AM. While the weather wasn't awful, neither was it suitable for an easy sail up to Hurghada, so we happily pulled into the very well protected harbor at 9 the next morning. Once again there were several people we know, but they come and go based on their own schedules--some pressured by having to meet people in the Med somewhere--and we enjoyed catching up with a whole new crowd from past travels.
Hurghada is at the foot of the Gulf of Suez about 180 miles from the canal. It is the Egyptian Riviera, and hotels stretch for miles along the coast both north and south. Once again, the desert pretty much comes right up to the water. The marina is right in the center of it all with the usual tourist traps/souvenir shops, etc. I have to admit, however, there are some good deals. I bought a really nice soft sheepskin backpack for about $35 and the replica watches seem to be better and cheaper that the others we've seen. This was another Med-moor but the height and configuration of the dock as well as the future moorings in the Med convinced us a paserelle was in order--that's gangplank for you landlubbers. A real paserelle would be about $2,000, so I bought an aluminum ladder and rigged up a proper footing for it for about $75. Not beautiful, but it works pretty well. How stupid not to have thought of it in Thailand and had a nice one made for cents on the dollar.
We had planned to visit Cairo, the pyramids and Luxor from here but were convinced by others to wait for Cairo 'til we got to Ismailia which is much closer. We did book an awesome 4 day 3 night Nile River cruise starting in Luxor and ending in Aswan. Unlike our Mekong River cruise at triple the cost, this one exceeded our expectations in every respect except the cost of drinks on the ship which was ridiculous. In Luxor, highlights were the Temple of Kharnak and the Valley of the Kings where Tut's and about 61 other pharaohs' tombs are--blazing hot but worth the experience. Stopped at several other temples on the way to Aswan and saw the totally unimpressive Aswan High dam the Russians built. Some other guys went farther south to Abu Simbel where, I'm sure you will recall, they dismantled and reassembled some famous temples, etc. that the lake created by the dam would have flooded and covered. The cabins were very large, really like hotel rooms, and the food was quite good, although all buffet. With our Hurghada purchased wifi card we could even do email and a bit of weather surfing. I now have about ten of these things because every country we visit claims their wifi stick will work everywhere else. "Just put in a new SIM card", they say. Right. It's just like a locked cell phone. Fortunately, these days, in most place it's very cheap for a new one and SIM cards are a dime a dozen. We were surprised at how narrow the Nile, one of the world's great rivers, really was. Overall, we give the cruise a 10 although the 8 hour drive back to Hurghada was tiresome. We left Charlie with a nice Swiss/Italian woman who boards animals out in the desert. It was a nice spot but he's been very affectionate since then. He had his own private apartment, fairly spacious, but we guess he didn't like speaking Arabic or something. Our tour of Cairo, etc. will be fairly short term so we're thinking of leaving him on board for that.
You all know the Egyptians love their coffee, so when our percolators crapped out one would think it would be no problem getting a stovetop percolator or French press--appliances here are 220 and the boat is 110 volt. We spent considerable effort looking but no dice. Hoping to find something in Cairo, but have ordered an electric one from home as well for later delivery. Speaking of deliveries, FedEx has done it again. Prior to arrival in Hurghada, I asked the marina about duty free importation. Most countries allow that if you are a "yacht in transit", which we are. The manager told me as long as the package was marked that way it shouldn't be a problem, so I ordered some essentials like the new VHF antenna and a new halyard as well as some other stuff--about $650 in all. So first of all, in comes my mail from Lizzie--no hold up there, but FedEx just accepted customs $100 duty assessment even though it was only mail and a few boxes of candy worth maybe $50 at the outside. In the meantime, the marina then told me that to get the stuff duty free I would need an agent to the tune of $150-200 so I opted to let the West Marine stuff come in as regular stuff. After all, it's total value was less than the imputed value of Lizzie's. So the boat stuff first got held up for 10 days in London due to the volcano but finally arrived Cairo on the 22nd. To make this story tolerably short, suffice it to say that FedEx basically did nothing to clear it and I still don't have it and they won't give me a refund. I'll get it in Ismailia, I guess, but half the problem is FedEx just sat on it and didn't call me, and the other half, I surmise, is customs is used to getting packages cleared by an agent who is willing to pay baksheesh, and I didn't have one so they kept coming up with excuses to delay clearance. Fortunately, from here on out I will have an in at FedEx as Lizzie has just gotten a job there with a big raise and 75% discount. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! And speaking of kids, Joey is temporarily gainfully employed delivering a yacht to Hong Kong. Up in the air after that.
Not wanting to delay departure to Suez any longer and with a favorable weather pattern, we left Hurghada sans FedEx, on Friday. Stopped about 25 miles out for the night at one of the nicest anchorages we've had in the Red Sea and sailed through the following night to arrive Suez yesterday, Sunday. We had already arranged an agent who got us measured (need that to figure the fees) and cleared so here we are Monday midday about halfway through. We'll be stopping shortly and do our remaining touring before finishing the canal and heading over to Israel. And, oh yes, the oil leak is still there. It'll have to wait for Israel. Think I'll give a third country's mechanics a shot at fixing it!!!
Okay, enough for now. Please be tantalized as our next instalment will describe our trip up the canal to Ismailia and our vist to Cairo and the Pyramids. Totally cool, fer sure dudes and dudettes. We're leaving tomorrow for Ashkelon, Israel.
Cheers
Tim & Rose
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)